The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-29
A Metempsychoiogical Peril.

1t is probable that no greater stroke
of fortune could have befallen Mr..
Charles A Williams, of Minneapolis,
than the recent failure of a surgeon in
this city to insert a rabbits eve in his
head and make it grow there. Mr.
Williams lost one of his own eyes when
he was only IS years old, and having
prejudice against glass eyes on ae-
count of their unhappy habit of trying
to look around corners and of gazing
heavenward when the natural eve is
bent upon the ground. his soul was
filled with hope when he learned that
New York ophthalmist was satisfied
that he could transplant rabbits eve
TO the human head, and induce il TO
take root and grow. He came to this
city. and large rabbit with lustrous
hazel eyes was selected for the victim.
Mr.. Williams was informed that there
was no hope of his being able To see
with the rabbits eye, but that il would
have n more natural appearance than a
glass eye, and would conduct itself in
harmony with his other organ of vi
sion. 1t is only fair to presume. how
terfuge on the part of the surgeon to
induce his patient to submit to the
operation; for if the optic nerve had
taken root and grown, and the eve had
| lived and fiourished, there is every rea-
son TO believe that il would have con-
tinusd to see as well from under Mr.
Williams eyelashes as from the rab-
| bits.
Still it would have been only rab-
| bits eye after all, and whatever ii saw
would have been seen from rabbit 5
standpoint. Mr.. Williams must grad
ually have acquired the habits and
mode of thought of rabbit, at least on
that side of his body most affected by
the new eve, and this unnatural blend
ing of human nature with rabbit ma
| ture would have been far more incon-
venient than if he had two rabbit
eyes, and had thus been wholly me-
tempsychosed. If, for instance, with
this rabbit eye controlling him ON one
side and the man nature on the other,
he had gone hunting and encountered
a fox, the man part of him would have
| been for shooting the fox. and the rab-
bit instinct would have impelled him to
quit the neighborhood as rapidly and
unostentatiously rs possible. He would
| thus have been torn with conflicting
emotions, and a few such experiences
must have undermined his health and
broken him down physically and men
tally.
How would he have conducted him
self when walking through his own
garden? Would the tender green let
tuce and the beautiful red-veined beet
tops most have delighted the eye OF
the man side or tickled the dainty pa
late of the rabbit side? But these
things would have been trivial com
pared with his inevitable feelings had
hunger driven him to seek restau-
rant, and had he there found dead
and dressed rabbit hanging by the
heels in the window. The man side
would have urged him to 90 In and
eat, and the rabbit side would have
torn him away with loathing and dis.
gust. Such trials must in time have
worn out his manly will force, and left
the rabbit side in the ascendant. in
which case he would have been liable
at any moment to make incursions
upon the Minneapolis lawns, hopping
about on all fours over the rich green
grass, taking here nibble and there q
nibble, till at length his very appear
ance might have changed with his in
stincts, his ears elongated and stood
upright, and the unhappy man have
fallen a victim at last to some street
dog. This great peril Mr.. William.
has escaped by the failure of the rab
bits eye.-Neto York Times.